Visit to Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Our Chief Executive visited North View, one of the main inpatient sites for Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) which is located in Crumpsall.

Daniel said: "GMMH has been on a journey of recovery and renewal, and since their new CEO joined the trust 18 months ago, a new leadership team has been recruited and significant improvements have been made. Just one example was the handover of this brand new state-of-the-art adult mental health hospital, which has been open for a year.

"The new hospital has replaced the dormitory wards which significantly improves patient privacy and dignity, providing 150 single en-suite bedrooms. Its design is incredible and has won a clutch of awards. Some of its features include a gold standard award winning dementia suite, which includes a simulation suite where patients can take a bus to places that they remember – like the beach. When the patient arrives to the beach they are then fully immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the seaside. 

"The wards can be configured in many different designs to flex up and down depending on the male/female mix of patients and there are acoustic sound absorbing panels in the circling. Each ward has a communal eating area with dedicated servers, which is particularly important because the food is something of a revelation.

"At the request of their head chef Karolina, a finalist in the NHS Chef of the Year competition, they have insourced the production of all their patient food, and I was offered the opportunity to taste the new Autumn menu. The menus have been co-created with patients, uses sustainable ingredients and were absolutely delicious. They cater for every kind of diet and is remarkably cheaper than the cook-chill regenerated food it has replaced because they produce a lot less waste.

"They have also set up a dedicated staff led initiative to tackle racial abuse against staff. The multiple award-winning REACH programme provides support to staff who have been victims of abuse and also offers restorative conversations for patients to get them to understand the impact of their actions. Alternatively, they also work in partnership with Greater Manchester Police to issue sanctions against the offending patient. This dual approach is proving effective with more than half of patients behaviour showing considerable improvement.

"GMMH has virtually eliminated its legacy 150+ out of area placements and made big strides in reducing the number of patients with no criteria to reside. They are also the biggest recruiter of mental health patients into clinical trials.

"There is so much for GMMH to be proud of. Thank you so much to Tony, Karen, Marc, Karolina, Rufus, Loveness, Carl and Alison for such a brilliant visit."